"Generally, in a reconciliatory tone, Kony asked for forgiveness," LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP from Nabanga, a small trading post on the border between Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kony spoke in the presence of Riak Machar, the vice president of southern Sudan, as well as Ugandan envoy to the region Busho Ndinyeka and Sudanese elders.

In addition, the LRA renewed its demand for a ceasefire, which was rejected by the Kampala government when talks opened last month.

"We are indeed renewing that demand that we need a ceasefire. Meaningful negotiations will not take place without a ceasefire," Olweny told AFP, reading from a press release.

"The government should revisit the issue and make concessions for the ceasefire. This will show that it is fully committed to the peace process," he added.

A south Sudanese lawmaker who attended the meeting said the self-proclaimed prophet and mystic Kony was frank as he sought forgiveness for the vicious atrocities his ragtag movement has inflicted on civilians since he took over leadership of a rebellion in 1988.

"People were very happy when he asked for forgiveness for the atrocities that the Ugandans (LRA and Ugandan army) committed and the suffering of the people of northern Uganda and southern Sudan," Betty Achan Ogwalo, a member of the southern Sudan parliament, told AFP.

"Kony was very frank in his talking and the people of southern Sudan agreed to let what has passed be forgotten and start a new chapter," she added. "The meeting was very useful and we all agreed to work together."

Earlier Kony told the delegates that peace talks were the only way to end the fighting, according to the leader of the LRA delegation to the peace talks Martin Ojur.

Ojur, who leads the rebel delegation at the talks, said Tuesday's meeting was the second time the rebel supremo has participated directly in the discussions following a first meeting Saturday at the same site.

As the closed-door sessions continued, dozens of heavily armed LRA fighters, wearing belts of ammunition -- surrounded the tent where the negotiations took place, they said.

The talks mediated by Machar, himself a former rebel commander of the former Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army rebels, are seen as the best chance to end the bloody rebellion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced up to two million people.

The International Criminal Courts (ICC) in The Hague has issued arrest warrants for Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and three other top commanders, preventing the rebel leader from joining peace talks.

But President Yoweri Museveni has assured "total amnesty" to Kony if the talks succeed.

Sudan is working with foreign governments to have The Hague's arrest warrants withdrawn in order to enable Kony to negotiate directly with the government.

The meeting in Nabanga was organised because Kony refused to travel to Juba, where peace talks opened on July 14.

"It was a highly successful meeting and I can assure you that peace is coming to the region. Everyone said that there were indications that we are all headed on the right direction," said Olweny.

The LRA claims to be fighting to replace Museveni's government with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments, but has become better known for atrocities, particularly kidnapping children -- girls to use as sex slaves and boys as fighters -- as well as butchering civilians in camps and slicing off lips and ears.

The United Nations says the war in northern Uganda is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters and complains that it has largely gone unnoticed by the international community.

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